Audiophilepure

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/quad-33303-2024

Forget everything you know about the sound of the original 33/303. Playing old-and-new side-by-side, the Sixties pairing still sounds wonderfully warm, but lacks the ultimate precision, bass control and extension at the frequency extremes. Consider what Peter Walker unleashed in 1967, and you accept that these were voiced first and foremost for the Quad 57 ESL – their most likely partner. The new 33/303 has to face a world of lower impedance if typically higher sensitivity speakers to succeed.

And, wow, do they ever! We try out speakers from 4-15ohm impedance and 85dB-93dB sensitivity and power is never an issue. Adding a second 303 changes not just the dynamics due to the added wattage, but audibly tightens up the lower registers. All remarks from here on refer to a single 303 running in balanced mode, with the 33 in its tone-off position.

Appropriately, the first music sampled comes from a mono 1964 LP. The Animals’ eponymous debut is, for many, preferred in that mode, House Of The Rising Sun probably heard by more people over AM radio than off vinyl. Via the 33’s MC phono stage, the sound is crisp, with plenty of ‘twang’ on the guitars, while the two star elements – Alan Price’s Vox Continental organ and Eric Burdon’s achingly raw, inimitable vocals – are afforded a tactile presence you’d probably expect of a pairing with a zero added to the price.

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